Controversial “Zero Dark Thirty” may be nominated as Best Picture at tonight’s Oscars, but collateral damage from the film included director Kathryn Bigelow’s romance with younger writer Mark Boal.
The May-December pair behind 2010’s Oscar-winning “The Hurt Locker” never publicly acknowledged their relationship, but sources say shooting the hunt-for-bin Laden film put holes in their love affair.
“They stayed together to do publicity for the film,” says a source close to the project. “The movie had to open. But their relationship started unraveling during the making of ‘Zero Dark Thirty.’ It was a very difficult shoot.” (The film had to be rejiggered when Osama bin Laden was killed as location scouting began.)
The source added of the pair: “It was always a case of opposites attract — he’s the East Coast intellectual, she’s the handsome, California horseback-riding goyish goddess.”
Word leaked in December that the couple quietly split even as they promoted their film, which weathered a barrage of criticism over its accuracy. But sources tell Page Six that Boal only just moved out of Bigelow’s home and has been giving friends new contact information.
Bigelow and Boal also seemed to be more than just colleagues at the Golden Globes. They arrived together, and we saw Boal, 39, chivalrously offer Bigelow, 61, his tux jacket in a private, tender moment when she was chilly.
But it remains to be seen if the pair will be as publicly linked when the Academy Awards end tonight, though they’ve become one of Hollywood’s hottest creative tandems. Boal’s script is up for one of five of the film’s Oscar nominations, but Bigelow was snubbed in the directing category.
Referring to the news of their split and Boal moving out, a rep for the pair told us: “That is factually inaccurate. Kathryn and Mark enjoy working together, as they have for many years. They have never commented on their private lives and aren’t about to start now.”